In an educational system on the verge of collapsing, one man has been
pushed to the brink.

Trevor Garfield (SAMUEL L. JACKSON), a dedicated Brooklyn high-school science
teacher, struggled to work within a system where the pursuit of education
sometimes took a back seat to the ongoing battle merely to stay alive.
He watched his school being transformed into a war zone, his pupils split
into camps -- the few eager to learn increasingly outnumbered by those angry
at a world that did not include them. Those students began to answer questions
with violence.

Working in this siege state, Trevor found his commitment stretched beyond
the limits of reason. When he refused to pass one of his volatile and sociopathic
pupils, the student retaliated by stabbing Trevor in the back, leaving him
on the brink of death.

One year later, his wounds scarred and his spirit shaken, Trevor returns
to teach in a Los Angeles school and finds himself in the same world of
amorality and violence he had hoped to leave behind. To his new colleagues,
Dave Childress (JOHN HEARD), a victim of teacher burn-out, and Ellen Henry
(KELLY ROWAN), a fresh and hopeful instructor, he is both a reluctant hero
and an inspiring enigma. To most of his new students, he is a cipher to
be disregarded.

But Trevor's dedication has been tainted with something darker -- he finds
himself challenged by school administrators rendered impotent by their
fear of possible litigation and confronted by a group of desperate students
who would rather fight than learn. And now, no one is quite sure just how
far this transformed man will go.